Old Fashioned Home Remedies For The Garden

 

Are you tired of running to your local garden center every time one of your plants is overtaken by a new fungus or an infestation of insects? Are you sick of spending extra dollars on a concoction that you aren’t even sure is effective and that you think might be doing some harm to the environment, animals and your loved ones? But what to do?

I’ve got the answer right here with a list of old fashioned home made remedies: some of which have been passed on from other gardeners and/or their mothers or grandmothers.

Practically all of the ingredients used in these homemade recipes can be retrieved from you kitchen or medicine cabinets at home. 

BAKING SODA

Baking soda can be used to ward off black spot, a terrible fungus that usually hits roses by late Spring. The most effective recipe I’ve found is the Cornell one which is:

1Tblsp. Of baking soda with 1 tsp. Of dishwashing detergent to 1 gallon of water. Mix together and spray on roses early in the morning once a week until disease has disappeared. 

BEER

Beer is an old time favorite for getting rid of slugs and snails. This is how you do it. Place the beer (it doesn’t matter what brand) in either shallow pans or a cut down some paper cups to about 1”tall. The pests will crawl into the pans or cups and drown themselves. 

VEGETABLE OIL 

Believe it or not, if you mix 1 cup of vegetable oil with 1 Tblsp. Of dishwashing liquid together and then take 1 Tblsp. Of this concoction and mix it with 1 Cup of water, you now have a formula to get rid of aphids. Aphids are very tiny insects that suck the sap from a plant ultimately weakening it. If your leaves look curled and deformed, look under the leaves closely and you may find a colony of aphids.

HOT JALAPENO PEPPERS

I was once told by a listener on my radio show that after trying all of the concoctions to get rid of moles, gophers and groundhogs, he planted jalapeno peppers within 4” from the area that they were invading. And voila! They ran for cover after taking a taste of these hot veggies. I'm going to try this advice but will divide the hot peppers in half when I plant them. I think he is on the right track because Hot Pepper Spray (a prepared organic spray) is sold in garden centers as a remedy for getting rid of rabbits, squirrels, moles, voles and groundhogs. 

CASTOR OIL

Castor Oil sprays are sold in garden centers as a solution to get rid of groundhogs and deer. I would be tempted to go to a pharmacy or health food store and just buy myself a bottle of castor oil and dilute with water and spray on affected areas to see if it works. 

PEPPERMINT OIL & GRIT

Peppermint oil is good deterrent for ants who have invaded your garden or home. You can either saturate cotton balls with it or mix in a spray bottle with water and spray where needed. GRITS sprinkled in the garden are also supposed to be an effective way to kill off ants. 

VINEGAR (and Lemon Juice)

Vinegar has become a well known organic way of eradicating weeds. Some people say that they're able to get rid of weeds merely by spraying household vinegar on them. Others say that you need to buy a higher concentration of vinegar in order for it to be effective. I would check one of the bottled organic vinegar solutions at your garden center to see what concentration of vinegar they're using. It wouldn’t hurt to add lemon juice to your homemade weed killing formula either. Word has it that the combo of vinegar and lemon juice is a dynamo for killing weeds.

BUTTERMILK

So you think that buttermilk is just a method for helping pots get that aged look or for getting moss to grow? Well, think again. For those pesky mites, the teeny tiny, reddish insects that you can barely see with the naked eye (but that can do tremendous damage to a plant in what seems like no time at all causing yellow foliage and twisted leaf tips), here is a homemade formula that is sure to solve your mite problem. Mix ½ Cup of buttermilk with 4 cups of wheat flour and 5 gallons of water. Strain this mixture through a cheesecloth. Spray it onto the diseased plants. It will kill all of the mites and their eggs.

GARLIC 

A mixture of 1 chopped garlic bulb and 1 Tblsp. Of cayenne pepper steeped in 1 quart of water creates a mixture that will help keep cats and dogs out of the garden. Adding 1 tsp. Of liquid dishwashing soap to help this spicy combination adhere to the plant. Strain the portion that you are going to use and spray onto the plant leaves. The remainder of the formula can stay fresh in the fridge for several weeks.

IRISH SPRING SOAP

Cut up a bar of Irish Spring Soap and cut the end of an old pair of panty hose. Put the piece of soap in the panty hose and tie onto the trees and bushes where the deer have done damage. Before you know it, the deer will be gone. They can’t stand the smell of Irish Spring.

SUNLIGHT DISHWASHING LIQUID

Quite a few listeners from my show swear that the brand name of “Sunlight Dishwashing Liquid” is the one remedy that works 100% of the time on mites. Mix 1 Tblsp. of Sunlight with 1 gallon of water.

OLIVE OIL

If you place 1 Tblsp of olive oil on any water surface, it will prevent mosquitoes from breeding there.

RUBBING ALCOHOL

When in doubt, I go to my medicine cabinet and get out the old rubbing alcohol. I soak a few cotton balls in the alcohol and rub on the infected area for such insects as:

spider mites, aphids, slugs and whiteflies. It may take a few times before you successfully get rid of these pests, but eventually it does work. Rubbing alcohol is a 'must have' for the garden.

LEMON JUICE and SUGAR

In order to keep cut flowers fresher for a longer period of time, I add 1 Tblsp. of lemon juice and 1 Tblsp. of sugar to a container 2/3 filled with cool or tepid water.